New 02' T Sport Owner From Dorset

[shedend]

Hi all, Just (yesterday :P ) bought a 2002 a 3 door T Sport, 1 owner. FTSH. and 20,000 miles only Due to 'economic' reasons had to hand back my 07' MINI Cooper S. Was looking around for a new motor and narrowed it down to Clio 172, Mazda 3 2.0, Focus ST170 or Corolla. Was always really between Mazda and CTS and as always had an eye for these when I saw this one 70 mles away had to go for it. Was looking for leather, 5 door etc but when found this one with the millage and full history had to go for it :D

Will prob' latter be asking about mods' etc but at the moment enjoying lifting when I can :)

Cheers

Dave

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z41/she...la%20T%20Sport/

[cabcurtains]

Hi all, Just (yesterday :P ) bought a 2002 a 3 door T Sport, 1 owner. FTSH. and 20,000 miles only Due to 'economic' reasons had to hand back my 07' MINI Cooper S. Was looking around for a new motor and narrowed it down to Clio 172, Mazda 3 2.0, Focus ST170 or Corolla. Was always really between Mazda and CTS and as always had an eye for these when I saw this one 70 mles away had to go for it. Was looking for leather, 5 door etc but when found this one with the millage and full history had to go for it :D

Will prob' latter be asking about mods' etc but at the moment enjoying lifting when I can :)

Cheers

Dave

Good Choice & Welcome to the club

Can you stick your pics on photobucket or similiar so all can see.

[shedend]

cheers cabcurtains, will do :)

Yours is a pre faclift CTS also i see - am looking at some mods and your list of goodies looks great so can i ask where did you get your mods from? (am thinking of lowering, strut brace and some form of intduction kit/exhaust change) also if i lower will this effect the hardness of the ride much? the MINI had sports+ suspension and with run flats was a mega hard ride - partner hated it, (so loves the CTS more already). i want to stiffen it and have less body roll but worried the ride may get to hard again. Do you/others that have lowered find it okay?

Cheers in anticipation ;) :)

hope this works! -

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z41/she...la%20T%20Sport/

[MarcTS]

Hi Dave, welcome to TOC :) That's a nice tidy example you have there. I would have loved to get a car with such low mileage on it when I bought mine!

To try and answer your questions about ride firmness, as I'm sure you have already noticed, the ride in the CTS is extremely comfortable. unfortunately the comfort means there is a severe lack of handling and large amounts of body roll. If you keep the same wheels and just drop it 30mm on TTE or Eibach springs (the TTE ones from Toyota are rebadged Eibachs) then you really won't notice any extra harshness in the ride comfort but you will notice the handling improvement. Obviously just putting springs on the existing shocks won't be as good as getting a set of coilovers etc but it will definitely improve matters over the standard. Getting larger wheels etc will definitely harden the ride but even dropped 30mm and running on 18s (215/40/R18) the ride is still comfortable on long journeys over various surfaces.

To prevent body roll, a front and rear strut bar would go a long way. The front is generally pretty easy but as you have the pre-facelift, you will find that the abs pipes get in the way on the RHS mount for the strut. This is easily overcome by either replacing the pipes with facelift ones, or if you have the courage for it, you can do what I did and bend them down slightly to get them out of the way. The rear strut requires you to chop away at the interior of the car in order to fit it, but cabcurtains has recently done it and said it wasn't too difficult. I haven't fitted a rear strut as I do not want to cut my interior trim, so I am considering anti sway bars on the undercarriage of the car instead.

[cabcurtains]

Look well

I do like the dark blue

[cabcurtains]

cheers cabcurtains, will do :)

Yours is a pre faclift CTS also i see - am looking at some mods and your list of goodies looks great so can i ask where did you get your mods from? (am thinking of lowering, strut brace and some form of intduction kit/exhaust change) also if i lower will this effect the hardness of the ride much? the MINI had sports+ suspension and with run flats was a mega hard ride - partner hated it, (so loves the CTS more already). i want to stiffen it and have less body roll but worried the ride may get to hard again. Do you/others that have lowered find it okay?

Cheers in anticipation ;) :)

hope this works! -

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z41/she...la%20T%20Sport/

The lowering springs are a must, TTE badged ones are from Mr T or the Eibachs as MiniMarc mentions - Fensport

TTE Strutbrace from Mr T is a nice piece of metal but not worth twice as much as the Fensport TRD ones, the rear brace is again from Fensport.

TTE Backbox is another Mr T item or as MiniMarc has, the Remus one is the same part with a different Badge.

K & N is readily available via eBay or Filters UK etc

My Mrs uses the car 95% of the time and she has no complaints with ride comfort, she even agrees it looks and drivers better than when we first got it

[ae102]

Welcome! car looks stunning - love blue rollas. my last 2 were blue so i had to change colour this time. Have a look at "Armz"'s car - his is blue, had respray - well he spent a small fortune on it but the results were defo worth it.

What ever happened to Armz?

[MarcTS]

Welcome! car looks stunning - love blue rollas. my last 2 were blue so i had to change colour this time. Have a look at "Armz"'s car - his is blue, had respray - well he spent a small fortune on it but the results were defo worth it.

What ever happened to Armz?

No idea, he just dropped off the map. Last time I spoke to him he was snowed under with work, but can't see that taking up all his time. I have to agree though, his car was a really great example. When I got my CTS it was a decision between the black and the blue. In the end I went with black as it was £800 cheaper and about 50 miles closer to me as well. Still like the blue ones though.

[Ed_Shek]

Hi Shedend and welcome to TOC!

I've just had my TTE Lowering Springs fitted this weekend and I've noticed a great improvement in the handling of the car. Body roll has been reduced and it feels sharper in the turns. I haven't noticed much of a difference in the ride comfort but the car looks greater lowered. Toyota should have done this from the factory.

I won my TTE Springs from an eBay auction where the seller was a Toyota dealership. I got the springs for £95 in the end. Fitting was 2 hours work by the local performance motorstore garage.

I'm possibly going to see if I can get a backbox next. :D

Can't believe I've had the car 3 years before I decided to get it lowered.

[shedend]

Hi Dave, welcome to TOC :) That's a nice tidy example you have there. I would have loved to get a car with such low mileage on it when I bought mine!

To try and answer your questions about ride firmness, as I'm sure you have already noticed, the ride in the CTS is extremely comfortable. unfortunately the comfort means there is a severe lack of handling and large amounts of body roll. If you keep the same wheels and just drop it 30mm on TTE or Eibach springs (the TTE ones from Toyota are rebadged Eibachs) then you really won't notice any extra harshness in the ride comfort but you will notice the handling improvement. Obviously just putting springs on the existing shocks won't be as good as getting a set of coilovers etc but it will definitely improve matters over the standard. Getting larger wheels etc will definitely harden the ride but even dropped 30mm and running on 18s (215/40/R18) the ride is still comfortable on long journeys over various surfaces.

To prevent body roll, a front and rear strut bar would go a long way. The front is generally pretty easy but as you have the pre-facelift, you will find that the abs pipes get in the way on the RHS mount for the strut. This is easily overcome by either replacing the pipes with facelift ones, or if you have the courage for it, you can do what I did and bend them down slightly to get them out of the way. The rear strut requires you to chop away at the interior of the car in order to fit it, but cabcurtains has recently done it and said it wasn't too difficult. I haven't fitted a rear strut as I do not want to cut my interior trim, so I am considering anti sway bars on the undercarriage of the car instead.

Cheers for that MiniMarc yours and the other replies have convinced me

[shedend]

Hi Shedend and welcome to TOC!

I've just had my TTE Lowering Springs fitted this weekend and I've noticed a great improvement in the handling of the car. Body roll has been reduced and it feels sharper in the turns. I haven't noticed much of a difference in the ride comfort but the car looks greater lowered. Toyota should have done this from the factory.

I won my TTE Springs from an Ebay auction where the seller was a Toyota dealership. I got the springs for £95 in the end. Fitting was 2 hours work by the local performance motorstore garage.

I'm possibly going to see if I can get a backbox next. :D

Can't believe I've had the car 3 years before I decided to get it lowered.

yea know what you mean, if i don't lower it now time will just move on and i will forget about it (dementa hitting me early i guess :o )

have heard people talking about 'backbox' what actually is it/does it do? (get the idea mechanicals are a bit of a mystery to me?! )

cheers

[Norfolk n Chance]

have heard people talking about 'backbox' what actually is it/does it do? (get the idea mechanicals are a bit of a mystery to me?! )

cheers

It's literally the end section of your exhaust.

Don't think it makes too much of a difference performance wise but it adds a nice growl to the exhaust note and looks a bit better than the stock exhaust! ;)

[shedend]

have heard people talking about 'backbox' what actually is it/does it do? (get the idea mechanicals are a bit of a mystery to me?! )

cheers

It's literally the end section of your exhaust.

Don't think it makes too much of a difference performance wise but it adds a nice growl to the exhaust note and looks a bit better than the stock exhaust! ;)

cheers, was wanting to improve/increase the sound a bit (nothing to OTT) B)

[shedend]

Ed Shek - your H7 6000k HID Conversion Kit is it E marked? was looking at these type of kits and looked on a local fitters website who said they were not legal :( if not does this pose a problem with MOT etc?

Cheers

Dave

(P.S - sorry for all the questions guys :P just love the car and want to get best out of it)

[Ed_Shek]

Ed Shek - your H7 6000k HID Conversion Kit is it E marked? was looking at these type of kits and looked on a local fitters website who said they were not legal :( if not does this pose a problem with MOT etc?

Cheers

Dave

(P.S - sorry for all the questions guys :P just love the car and want to get best out of it)

erm.....put it this way I've passed the MOT twice now with the HIDs installed and I doubt appear to be dazzling oncoming traffic. Not sure about the kit being E marked. Check out HIDS4U for a possible answer.

[shedend]

erm.....put it this way I've passed the MOT twice now with the HIDs installed and I doubt appear to be dazzling oncoming traffic. Not sure about the kit being E marked. Check out HIDS4U for a possible answer.

i wont say anything :P yep looked on HIDS4U under questions and they had nothing listed there but one of their local fitters had this on their site (on one of the back pages no one but sad peeps like me read!):

Technical for HID Conversion Kits

Please remember that it is your responsibility to ensure that the items purchased are suitable for your vehicle make/model and that the use of said items complies with all applicable laws in your Country. In the UK, fitting an aftermarket HID kit is not technically road legal as you are replacing a halogen bulb with an HID bulb, because of this the HID bulb cannot be E marked, which is a requirement for it to be road legal. Therefore our HID kits are sold for off-road use only.

guess it will be okay and as you say appears not to be a problem with MOT = all good B)